My Friend Frank
- Pamela Marasco
- May 18
- 2 min read
Updated: May 20
My friend Frank likes to cook. He's not a chef but he clearly knows his way around the kitchen. He owns a high profile IT company and travels a lot for business and when he's back home, cooking becomes a re-set for relaxation. He likes to cook Italian and often shops CosituttiMarketPlace. He values our purpose and pleasure and the connection to the producers and products we source where quality, sustainability and traditional regional ingredients are benchmarks.
Frank often shares his recipes with me. This one seems to be one his favorites. Italian sausage and peppers is a dish that appeals to a lot of home cooks. A good Italian sausage is already seasoned with fennel, garlic, and herbs and adds high-reward flavor to the caramelized peppers and onions. It can be a stand alone meal for a casual weeknight dinner, a sandwich filler for lunch or an add-on to your favorite pasta sauce. You can make it extra special with a sprinkle of Dario Cecchini Profumo del Chianti Herbal Salt Blend. Cecchini is a Tuscan butcher known for promoting high-quality, traditional meat preparation and local food systems. His herbal salt is an artisan blend of Italian sea salt with aromatic herbs from the forests and meadows of Chianti. It's used on a variety of foods seasoned to taste.
Knowing this, I suggested the following recipe for Frank to try. It fits perfectly into his relaxed, straightforward cooking style. The recipe centers around a new product in the CosituttiMarketPlace pantry, Frantoi Cutrera Sugo alla Norma Tomato Sauce with Eggplant.
The recipe is a take on the much loved Sicilian recipe for Pasta all Norma without compromising on the artisanal techniques that make it so good. In the made-from-scratch recipe a tomato sauce is combined with fried eggplant and fresh basil. Preparing the sauce requires sweating the eggplant in salt for 30 minutes to remove any bitterness before frying. Frantoi Cutrera Sugo alla Norma makes cooking this classic dish much faster and easier by eliminating the two most time-consuming and messy steps; slow-simmering the tomato sauce and frying the eggplants.
With Frantoi Cutrera Sugo alla Norma Tomato Sauce with Eggplant you have the convenience of a jarred sauce made from the same combination of ingredients that dates back generations. A traditional regional dish in minutes without compromising.
All you need to do is boil your pasta (1/2 - 1 lb) cooked according to package directions.
Open a jar of Frantoi Cutrera Sugo alla Norma Tomato Sauce with Eggplant and pour into a large skillet. Warm the sauce gently in a pan while the pasta cooks. Drain the pasta, retaining a small amount of pasta water. Toss the pasta directly into the pan with the warm sauce for1 minute. Add pasta water a little at a time to loosen the sauce as needed. Plate and finish with fresh basil and a generous grating of ricotta salata.
From jar to table in under 15 minutes with the traditional taste of an Italian homestyle kitchen; a rustic, smooth yet slightly chunky sauce with bits of tender eggplant.
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